Freelancing in the Middle East? Follow these 4 tips to get started!

The path to freelancing isn’t necessarily a straight one. People turn to freelancing at various junctures in their lives but one thing is for sure, it is always an option. Freelancing simply means that you are not committed to one employer and you get to “choose” what you want to work on, at a time that works for you.

Becoming a freelancer in the Middle East can be challenging since we still lack the “freelance” mindset and the infrastructure to support freelancers is somewhat nascent. Building on our experience at Nabbesh.com, we offer you 4 tips to get started!

Make sure you love what you do: Freelancing is a long and often lonely path, it is one thing to muster the motivation get started but the real test starts when you hit your first road block and whether or not you will have the resilience to keep going. When you are passionate about your work, you will go the extra mile to present your skills in the most professional way, you will take ownership of your work and the promises you make to clients and you will certainly start reaping the results when your clients start raving about you! Success won’t happen over night, but if you love your work, it most certainly will.

Know the value of your work:Start by researching the market before you price your services. It could be as simple as asking friends and colleagues, or approaching potential clients to get an idea about budgets. Have a clear price range in mind and negotiate within that range. Setting low prices can hurt your income and demotivate you while setting high prices may drive clients away. If this is your first attempt at freelancing, be willing to take on a few jobs at a discount in order to to get the ball rolling and give you momentum but be clear with your clients and let them know that this is an introductory offer!

Choose the right platform to get started:Freelancing is no longer dependent on your circle of family and friends, you have at your disposal several local and global “online work” marketplaces to get you started! A marketplace drastically increases your exposure to a wide network of clients and provides you with a steady stream of projects/ jobs that you can choose from. Decide which marketplace is the right one for you, factors include your skills and level of experience, your preferred type of client, your preferred method of work i.e. do you want on-site projects or pure virtual work? Once you make the decision, spend some time building a quality profile as most marketplaces have algorithms that provide more visibility to freelancers with quality profiles versus bad or incomplete profiles.

Build your reputation:We could not stress how important this is! Marketplaces like Nabbesh.com offer a rating & review mechanism for you to start building your online reputation. This tool provides an unbiased assessment of your work and clients will consider it when they are assessing different applicants. If you were to hire someone to do a simple task, wouldn’t you want to hire the person with the best reviews? How about if you were a company looking to hire an expert for a $5000 project? Your reputation is not only your gateway to more work, but it also means better clients and higher value projects.

Online work marketplaces have taken freelancing to the next level! It is now easy and safe for anyone with an internet connection to get access to thousands if not millions of potential clients and start earning an income fast!

Do you have freelancing stories you would like to share? Then write us at contact@nabbesh.com

Share this:

Like this:

2 Comments

I’m an English-Arabic translator and vise versa . I’ve working on translating since 1995. I’ve worked for multinational co.s. I translated articles in different fields; medical, social , historical, and legal. I think i can help you